Born in Wetzlar, Germany on February 20, 1836, Waldschmidt immigrated to America in the 1850s, settling in Elkhart, Indiana. Mustering in as a sergeant on July 29, 1861, he would be one of the many who made the leap from enlisted man to officer during the war. At his post throughout the campaigns of 1862 and 1863, Waldschmidt would be among the few who remained unharmed after the battle of Gettysburg… a battle that saw the 19th Indiana take 73% casualties.

Wounded at the battle of Wilderness in May of 1864, Lt. Waldschmidt would muster out of the 19th Indiana that fall, accepting a Captain’s commission in the 152nd Indiana Regiment in March of 1865. He’d serve out the war in this capacity, mustering out as a Major on August 30, 1865 in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

After the war, he’d spend many years in Goshen, Indiana, where he served as a deputy United States Marshall. He died on January 31, 1918 in South Bend, Indiana.

Finney, a resident of Elizabethtown, Indiana, would later serve as a Lieutenant and then Adjutant of the 20th Indiana Regiment. Finney would respond to a request from David Stephenson, who had announced to the citizens of Indiana that he was looking for “A complete list of our brave soldiers who have died from sickness or fallen on the battlefield. It is my aim to do justice to the living, and to embalm in the hearts of Indiana’s sons the memory of the patriotic dead who have fallen in defense of our national government.” Finney’s account of the 19th Indiana’s role in the war from its inception until August 1st, 1863 would appear in Stephenson’s “Indiana’s Roll of Honor,” published in 1864. Many minor errors and omissions in the text, however, indicate that someone not familiar with the regiment may have had a hand in editing Finney’s document.

SOURCES:

19thindianaironbrigade.com

“On Many a Bloody Field,” by Alan D. Gaff, 1996

“Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana, Volume 2,” 1865

Captain Lindley, born April 12, 1831, was a fine example of the top-notch officers put forth by the Iron Brigade. Described by Colonel Samuel Williams as “cool and courageous” in battle, Lindley would competently lead his men on every field on which he was present until mustering out as a Lt. Colonel in October of 1864. He was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Brawner’s Farm and, having been promoted to Major, was wounded again while leading his men in an organized retreat through the town of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, when a ball struck his hand and saber, eventually leading to the amputation of a finger. Another ball grazed his cheek, leaving no permanent damage. Lindley would receive a pension after the war.

Lt. Colonel Lindley would die at the young age of 42 on February 12, 1874. He is buried in the Friends Meeting House Cemetery in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, James Drum moved to Indianapolis as a boy, where he’d become a merchant and enroll in the National Guards, a Capitol City Militia unit. His first official military assignment was in the Commissary at Camp Morton, but he desired a more active assignment and was given a commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the 19th Indiana. Promoted to Captain in early 1863, Drum was transferred to the Commissary Department and assigned to a post in Nicholasville, Kentucky, where he would die of disease later that year.

SOURCES:

On Many a Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade, by Alan D Gaff